Learn about indicating potential
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: おはよう、カーディフ。ナツコです。(Ohayō, Kādifu. Natsuko desu.) |
| Yoshi: おはよう、カーディフ。よしです。(Ohayō, Kādifu. Yoshi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Beginner lesson #127. Okay, we are joined in the studio by Natsuko-san and Yoshi-san. Today we are going to be introducing you to another form of potential. Natsuko-san, last time we introduced the potential. We introduced |
| Natsuko: できる (dekiru) |
| Peter: And |
| Natsuko: ことができる (koto ga dekiru) |
| Peter: But in Japanese, as some of you may know, there is another way to talk about potential. Today we are going to be talking about class 2 verbs. This conversation is between a married couple. It will be informal Japanese. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 面白い映画だったね。次の映画は？(Omoshiroi eiga datta ne. Tsugi no eiga wa?) |
| 夫 (otto) : 次？今１時だよ。もう寝ようよ。(Tsugi? Ima ichi-ji da yo. Mō neyō yo.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 寝たくない。もう一本見ようよ。一緒に見ようよ。(Netakunai. Mō ippon miyō yo. Issho ni miyō yo.) |
| 夫 (otto) : 目が疲れた。もう見られない。暖かいベッドに入りた〜い。おやすみ。(Me ga tsukareta. Mō mirarenai. Atatakai beddo ni hairitāi. Oyasumi.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : あ、待って。寝る前にビールもう一本買ってきて。(A, matte. Neru mae ni bīru mō ippon katte kite.) |
| 夫 (otto) : え、ほんとに？(E, honto ni?) |
| Natsuko: もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 面白い映画だったね。次の映画は？(Omoshiroi eiga datta ne. Tsugi no eiga wa?) |
| 夫 (otto) : 次？今１時だよ。もう寝ようよ。(Tsugi? Ima ichi-ji da yo. Mō neyō yo.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 寝たくない。もう一本見ようよ。一緒に見ようよ。(Netakunai. Mō ippon miyō yo. Issho ni miyō yo.) |
| 夫 (otto) : 目が疲れた。もう見られない。暖かいベッドに入りた〜い。おやすみ。(Me ga tsukareta. Mō mirarenai. Atatakai beddo ni hairitāi. Oyasumi.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : あ、待って。寝る前にビールもう一本買ってきて。(A, matte. Neru mae ni bīru mō ippon katte kite.) |
| 夫 (otto) : え、ほんとに？(E, honto ni?) |
| Natsuko: 次は、ピーターさんの英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Pītā-san no Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 面白い映画だったね。次の映画は？(Omoshiroi eiga datta ne. Tsugi no eiga wa?) |
| WIFE: It was a funny movie, right? What's next? |
| 夫 (otto) : 次？今１時だよ。もう寝ようよ。(Tsugi? Ima ichi-ji da yo. Mō neyō yo.) |
| HUSBAND: Next? It's one o'clock now. Let's go to bed. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 寝たくない。もう一本見ようよ。一緒に見ようよ。(Netakunai. Mō ippon miyō yo. Issho ni miyō yo.) |
| WIFE: I don't want to sleep. Let's watch one more. Let's watch together. |
| 夫 (otto) : 目が疲れた。もう見られない。(Me ga tsukareta. Mō mirarenai.) |
| HUSBAND: My eyes are tired. I can't watch. |
| 夫 (otto) : 暖かいベッドに入りた〜い。おやすみ。(Atatakai beddo ni hairitāi. Oyasumi.) |
| HUSBAND: I want to crawl into a warm bed. Good night. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : あ、待って。寝る前にビールもう一本買ってきて。(A, matte. Neru mae ni bīru mō ippon katte kite.) |
| WIFE: Ah, before you go to sleep, can you go buy a beer? |
| 夫 (otto) : え、ほんとに？(E, honto ni?) |
| HUSBAND: Huh? Really? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: So Natsuko-san, |
| Natsuko: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: You are asking him to go buy one beer. |
| Natsuko: Sure. |
| Peter: Let’s ask Yoshi-san what he thinks about that. |
| Natsuko: よしさん、今日の会話はどう思いましたか。(Yoshi-san, kyō no kaiwa wa dō omoimashita ka.) |
| Yoshi: でも、もう見れません。(Demo, mō miremasen.) |
| Peter: Yeah, Yoshi is very tired in the studio today. |
| Yoshi: ごめんなさい。もう眠たくて、早く暖かいベッドに入りたいです。(Gomen nasai. Mō nemutakute, hayaku atatakai beddo ni hairitai desu.) |
| Peter: What did you just say, Yoshi-san? |
| Yoshi: I said I am so tired and sleepy and I need to get into a warm bed. |
| Peter: Well right after you finish this, you are free to go. And I actually have another 8 hours of work. You can think about getting closer and closer. So today, Natsuko-san, we actually have no new vocabulary. |
| Natsuko: Oh yeah, wow really? |
| Peter: Really. So what we are going to do is actually go in and break this conversation down line by line. So let’s start out with the first line. |
| Natsuko: 面白い映画だったね。(Omoshiroi eiga datta ne.) |
| Peter: Literally an interesting movie it was, right? But we have to go in there and rearrange it to make it an interesting movie, right? What’s that particle at the end that indicates you want the listener's input? |
| Natsuko: ね (ne) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Natsuko: 次の映画は？(Tsugi no eiga wa?) |
| Peter: Now what comes after は (wa) is inferred here. It’s an inferred question, we have. Next because we have the word for next, followed by the possessive |
| Natsuko: の (no) |
| Peter: So it’s next. Can we do that Natsuko next movie but again we are rested around here? The next movie and what comes after the は (wa). If we had the rest of the question, what would it be? |
| Natsuko: 何ですか。(Nan desu ka.) |
| Peter: What is – what is the next movie? Again here it’s an informal situation and they are talking about some shared knowledge. They are sitting there with a stack of movies and they just finished one. So Natsuko-san asks about the other movies. Which one is next, what’s next? So again, you can use this structure ending with は (wa), the rest of the question inferred when you are talking about some kind of shared knowledge. Then we have, Yoshi-san? |
| Yoshi: 次？(Tsugi?) |
| Peter: Again everything is inferred here. We know the topic, we know what they are talking about. Next? What are you talking about? |
| Yoshi: 今１時だよ。(Ima ichi-ji da yo.) |
| Peter: It’s 1 o’ clock. We have that final particle |
| Yoshi: よ (yo) |
| Peter: To add emphasis to the statement that it's 1 o’ clock, it’s late. |
| Yoshi: もう寝ようよ。(Mō neyō yo.) |
| Peter: In previous lessons, we introduced the plain volitional and here we have a class 2 plain volitional. 寝る (neru), to sleep becomes |
| Yoshi: 寝よう(neyō) |
| Peter: Now what does this よ (yo) at the end do? |
| Natsuko: It’s also an emphasizing particle like convincing the other. |
| Peter: To do what is just said, right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So 寝よう (neyō), let’s sleep and 寝ようよ (neyō yo), what’s the difference there? |
| Natsuko: So 寝ようよ (neyō yo) is more strong way. |
| Peter: Come on, let’s go to sleep. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: As opposed to let’s go to sleep. Now is there going to be an intonation difference between the way you say it and the way Yoshi says it? Let’s just have you guys say it. |
| Yoshi: 寝ようよ。(Neyō yo). |
| Natsuko: 寝ようよ。(Neyō yo.) |
| Peter: Yeah, no intonation difference but… |
| Natsuko: Usually… |
| Peter: Guys want to copy. Yoshi, one more time. |
| Yoshi: 寝ようよ。(Neyō yo.) |
| Peter: And females, you want to copy Natsuko-san here. |
| Natsuko: 寝ようよ。(Neyō yo.) |
| Peter: Let’s go to sleep and the もう (mō) says already, come on, let’s go to sleep already. Ah yes I am very familiar with this but I am usually on the other side of the coin with 見ようよ (miyō yo), which is coming up next, Natsuko-san. |
| Natsuko: 寝たくない。(Netakunai.) |
| Peter: I don’t want to sleep. |
| Natsuko: もう１本見ようよ。(Mō ippon miyō yo.) |
| Peter: Now here we have 見ようよ (miyō yo), come on, let’s watch and when we count movies, they are counted using the counter |
| Natsuko: 本 (hon) |
| Peter: And one movie is |
| Natsuko: １本 (ippon) |
| Peter: Two movies is |
| Natsuko: ２本 (ni-hon) |
| Peter: Three movies |
| Natsuko: ３本 (san-bon) |
| Peter: Four movies |
| Natsuko: ４本 (yon-hon) |
| Peter: Five movies |
| Natsuko: ５本 (go-hon) |
| Peter: Six movies |
| Natsuko: ６本 (roppon) |
| Peter: And I will stop there because I haven’t seen more than six in one day. It’s kind of a max. |
| Natsuko: But you did up to six. |
| Peter: Yes, six. |
| Natsuko: Amazing. |
| Peter: On several occasions. Sometimes in movie theaters, I can see three but all right anyway back…So we have the counter here for the movie. Now let’s look at this sentence and take it apart literally. Give us the sentence, one more time. |
| Natsuko: もう１本見ようよ。(Mō ippon miyō yo.) |
| Peter: もう (mō) which can mean already but in this case, another. Then we have １本 (ippon) which is the counter and then we have |
| Natsuko: 見ようよ (miyō yo) |
| Peter: Come on, let’s watch. So the subjects are left out. They are inferred. We know we are talking about the husband and wife because it’s in the volitional together. We know that those are two subjects but again it’s inferred. We know they are talking about movies because of the counter, １本 (ippon). So again with Japanese, a lot’s inferred. This little sentence, this sentence here missing the subject, the object gets through and it is perfectly all right when you are speaking informal Japanese. It’s one of the most amazing things about this language. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Okay Natsuko-san, give us the next line. |
| Natsuko: 一緒に見ようよ。(Issho ni miyō yo.) |
| Peter: Together, let’s watch the literal translation. Again we take it, turn it around, let’s watch together. Notice, there is no object in this sentence. In English, we’d say let’s watch it together. We’d have that object in there but here we don’t need it. It’s inferred again. Again we have the ending particle |
| Natsuko: よ (yo) |
| Peter: And it’s used to add emphasis, come on. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Let’s watch it together. Reply was |
| Yoshi: 目が疲れた。(Me ga tsukareta.) |
| Peter: Eyes tired is the literal translation. The word for eye |
| Yoshi: 目 (me) |
| Peter: Now in Japanese, there is no plural. Here we infer he is speaking about eyes. Both of them, eyes tired and of course, that’s literal. What we do here is turn it around, tired eyes but Yoshi-san, whose eyes are you talking about? |
| Yoshi: Talking about my eyes. |
| Peter: Yes, again it’s inferred. So what we would actually translate this as, my eyes are tired. Again we don’t need that possessive. Again it’s inferred. He is speaking about eyes, his eyes. We don’t need to say it and now the moment of truth on our grammar point. Next line. |
| Yoshi: もう見られない。(Mō mirarenai.) |
| Peter: I can’t watch. In a previous beginner episode, we gave you the way to form the potential but in Japanese, as we said in the beginning, there is another way to form the potential. Today we are talking about class 2 verbs. The second way to form the potential for class 2 verbs is by attaching |
| Natsuko: られる (rareru) |
| Peter: To the masu-stem. Give it to us one more time, nice and slowly. |
| Natsuko: られる (rareru) |
| Peter: Break it down. |
| Natsuko: (slow) られる (rareru) (natural speed) られる (rareru) |
| Peter: られる(rareru), Yoshi-san, give it to us, one more time. |
| Yoshi: られる (rareru) |
| Peter: And this is attached to the masu-stem. In the dialogue, we have the class 2 verb 見る (miru). We drop the る (ru) to get the masu-stem and then we add to it, Natsuko-san |
| Natsuko: られる (rareru) |
| Peter: To form the potential. Now in the dialogue, we had the negative potential but we are not going to talk about that right now. Right now, we are just talking about the potential. So we drop the る (ru), get the masu-stem and we add られる (rareru) and it now means to be able to see. Let’s take another class 2 verb. Yoshi-san, what’s the verb to eat? |
| Yoshi: 食べる (taberu) |
| Peter: What’s the masu-stem? |
| Yoshi: 食べ (tabe) |
| Peter: Now, let’s make this into can eat, able to eat. |
| Yoshi: 食べられる (taberareru) |
| Peter: There it is. Take られる (rareru) and attach it to the masu-stem. That’s all there is to it. Now in the dialogue, we actually had the negative of the potential, which was |
| Yoshi: 見られない (mirarenai) |
| Peter: Can’t watch and again here, subject is inferred. So we have I can watch, followed by |
| Yoshi: 暖かいベッドに入りたい。(Atatakai beddo ni hairitai.) |
| Peter: Literally, “warm bed wants to enter.” Now again, we interpret this as I want to get into a warm bed, followed by |
| Yoshi: お休み。(Oyasumi.) |
| Peter: Which is a shortened version of |
| Yoshi: お休みなさい。(Oyasuminasai.) |
| Peter: Which is the goodnight greeting. So before you go to bed, you say |
| Yoshi: お休みなさい。(Oyasumi nasai.) |
| Peter: And with more intimate people, |
| Yoshi: お休み。(Oyasumi.) |
| Peter: Next up. |
| Natsuko: あっ、待って。(A, matte.) |
| Peter: Ah wait a sec! |
| Natsuko: 寝る前にビールもう１本買ってきて。(Neru mae ni bīru mō ippon katte kite.) |
| Peter: Can you go buy a beer before you go to bed? What a request! Now a few things in here. We are running short on time so we don’t have time to explain everything but here we are introducing the auxiliary verb 来る (kuru) where one attaches 来る (kuru) to the te-form of another verb and when this is done, it means to go do something. |
| Natsuko: And back. |
| Peter: That’s the key point. To go do something and then come back. Now we will have more about this inside the PDF. Also the way we know it’s one beer. Natsuko-san, how do we know it’s one beer in the sentence? |
| Natsuko: もう１本 (mō ippon) |
| Peter: １本 (ippon), that’s the Japanese for one, for counting cans and things of this shape. So just one beer, unbelievable. So the response to this was |
| Yoshi: えっ、ほんとに？(E, honto ni?) |
| Peter: Hah really! It will act as an adverb. What this に (ni) symbolizes here is that there is more to this sentence. You really want me to go as just opposed “to really”? If it didn’t have the に (ni), it would be really but here since the に (ni) is there, it’s inferred that something comes after it. You really want me to go? Okay, so that’s going to do it for today. A lot in there, hah! |
| Natsuko: Yes. Line by line. |
| Peter: Line by line. I like this though. You really, really get into the structure of the language. It’s really good. Okay, with that said, we will be back tomorrow with another interesting lesson. Actually Sakura-san makes her return, super Sakura-san. |
| Yoshi: Yes. |
| Natsuko: 楽しみですね。(Tanoshimi desu ne.) |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: That’s going to do for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、また明日。(Jā, mata ashita.) |
| Yoshi: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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